The First Superhuman: Rebuilding Civilization from the Moon

The discovery of a city immediately sparked everyone’s interest.

But at first glance, the metropolis appeared utterly dilapidated and desolate. It was heavily submerged in seawater, with only the upper halves of the tallest skyscrapers poking above the surface. The tallest building had walls that resembled a grotesque, diseased growth, completely covered in thick layers of red, orange, blue, and purple algae. In stark contrast to the vibrant, teeming ocean, this lifeless city evoked a heavy, suffocating feeling.

Drones whizzed by, transmitting massive amounts of high-definition footage. It was difficult for the human eye to process so much visual data at once, but the high-speed computers could handle it effortlessly. In an instant, the computational workload of the Titan-Z and the supercomputers aboard the Deep Space surged. Their image recognition software was running at maximum capacity; if any unusual life forms were caught on camera, they would be detected!

"Report. Have you found any traces of intelligent life?" Austin asked anxiously from the bridge.

After monitoring the drone feeds for a while, one of the operators shook his head. "Unfortunately, sir, the analysis software hasn’t flagged anything suspicious. Based on our estimates, this area has been abandoned for decades... probably around twenty years. It’s completely overrun with ordinary marine life."

Austin frowned deeply. An abandoned city completely submerged by the sea... What did it mean?

The Senior Scientists were also eagerly analyzing the footage to determine why the city had been evacuated.

The drone swarm naturally split into several specialized squadrons. One team continued inland, while another circled the flooded metropolis in search of useful clues. They deployed hexapod robots onto the sides of the skyscrapers, allowing the machines to crawl up the wet walls and slip inside through shattered windows.

Throughout this process, Jason refrained from issuing any direct orders, allowing the frigate captains to operate freely. Overall, he was quite satisfied with their cautious approach.

"Surprisingly, even though the city is completely flooded, the structures are relatively intact. There are no signs of orbital bombardment or direct military attacks. We are picking up some residual nuclear radiation, but it’s likely just radioactive fallout that drifted in from elsewhere."

"Look at the interiors. The rooms are generally clean, and any easily transportable valuables have already been taken. It doesn’t look like a panicked, hasty evacuation. I believe the native population retreated in a highly orderly manner. They must have anticipated the sharp rise in sea levels... This wasn’t a sudden cataclysm!" A Senior Scientist scrutinized each image carefully.

"Unfortunately... over the years, the seawater has severely corroded most of what was left behind. The local marine life seems to accelerate this decay. Very little remains untouched by the floodwaters."

The crew didn’t glean many groundbreaking clues from the city itself. It was particularly strange that they hadn’t found any localized signs of warfare. Of course, even with an orderly evacuation, plenty of everyday waste was left behind. The hexapod robots systematically collected discarded electronics, furniture, physical books, and basic household appliances.

The information contained in the physical books was especially valuable, offering a direct link between their text and corresponding images.

"Let’s load this into the translation software we’ve been upgrading over the past few years..."

"Wait... what’s this? An electronic reading pen? If we can repair it, this will be a massive breakthrough!" Several computer science experts eagerly began their work. Deciphering the native civilization’s written language had become their absolute highest priority. Over the years, the Federation’s technology had advanced by leaps and bounds, including their linguistic analysis software. With enough physical references, cracking a new language wouldn’t be too difficult.

Staring at the main screen, Jason fell into deep thought.

A perfectly preserved, flooded city... Could it be that the civilization’s reckless consumption of fossil fuels triggered a runaway greenhouse effect, melting their ice caps and causing a dramatic rise in sea levels? It was highly probable. With the coastal cities flooded, they would naturally become uninhabitable.

But what about the orbital flashes they had observed years ago? Were they truly nuclear detonations?

"It’s been over a decade since our observatory first recorded those flashes of light," a scientist reasoned aloud. "It took exactly 6.8 years for the light from this system to reach the GB131 system. We then spent two years mining on that metal planet, and another three years traveling here via warp drive... That’s a little over eleven years total."

"So... if a nuclear war did happen, it ended more than a decade ago!"

Hearing this logical deduction, Jason nodded silently. He had half a mind to patch into the frontline comms and issue new instructions, but he forced himself to hold back. He had delegated authority to his captains, and he needed to let them lead. He merely sent a brief message to Austin aboard the Titan-Z, reminding him to remain on high alert because the planet’s state was deeply unsettling.

In reality, the frigate captains were far more cautious than Jason had expected. They didn’t blindly deploy more drones, nor did they set the ground robots to fully autonomous modes. Instead, they patiently operated them manually. It was a slower process, but they had all the time in the world.

The vanguard aerial drones moved swiftly, sweeping past the flooded metropolis and pushing deep into the continent’s interior.

As they flew at low altitudes, the cameras revealed shattered highways choked with overgrown weeds, half-collapsed suburban housing, and scattered construction debris...

Giant, rusted metal pylons lay toppled across the landscape, likely once used to support high-voltage power lines. All of these metal structures showed signs of severe oxidation.

It was a complete... wasteland.

Even after a decade, the ambient radiation levels in these inland areas still exceeded safe parameters. Living here long-term wouldn’t kill a person immediately, but it would inevitably lead to severe chronic illnesses. Many crew members cursed under their breath, realizing that cleaning up the radioactive contamination on this ruined rock would require an astronomical amount of effort.

Half an hour later, the drones finally found undeniable evidence of war: a massive nuclear crater!

The surrounding structures had been completely leveled by the shockwave, but strangely, the plant life within the crater itself was thriving, growing lush and green.

Life always found a way. Even bathed in radiation, certain flora managed to adapt and survive. They had established themselves generation after generation, and while their lifespans might be stunted, they continued to grow.

"Judging from the blast radius and the residual radiation signature, this was likely a hydrogen bomb or a specialized neutron weapon... The overall lingering radiation isn’t absurdly high!"

"But still... we haven’t found a single sign of intelligent life!"

The drones had been scanning the surface for over three hours. While they had discovered endless ruins left behind by an intelligent civilization, they hadn’t found a single living native.

It was completely unbelievable.

Jason tried to imagine what it would look like if New York or London had been razed to the ground. In just over a decade, an entire civilization had vanished without a trace, the world had been reclaimed by the wilderness, animals had returned to their primal states, and flora had overgrown the concrete. Everything looked as though it had been abandoned for ages.

Where did the natives go? They were just... gone. Not only were there no visual sightings, but the supercomputers couldn’t find a single thermal or biological trace of them!

Had they completely gone extinct?

Staring at the wasteland on the monitor, a sharp pain suddenly pierced Jason’s temples. His heart rate spiked, and a profound, inexplicable sense of dread washed over him!

His sixth sense, honed by years of survival, told him that while there might not be an immediate, overwhelming threat on this planet, something was deeply, fundamentally wrong. And this gnawing unease only grew stronger by the minute.

The screens showed plenty of ordinary animals frolicking through the ruins, enjoying their reclaimed paradise. But based on biological scans, the chances of any of them possessing true, higher intelligence were effectively zero... They were just wild beasts, not the masters of this world.

A heavy sense of bewilderment settled over the crew. They had meticulously scoured the ruins but found absolutely nothing. It was as if the native population had been completely erased from the face of the planet.

Were they abducted by a more advanced alien species?

Or... did they completely annihilate each other in the war?

"Maybe it wasn’t just a nuclear war. What if they unleashed biological weapons? Something like a weaponized pathogen or an extinction-level virus..." a scientist muttered grimly.

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